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A comment on How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans. Parent comment

Re:How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans by moolcool on Friday July 26, 2024 @01:56PM (#41080702)
It's a valid distinction of the author to make. I don't know if there's such thing as a cigarette lighter which uses digital circuitry, but there theoretically could be.

The way the lighter in the article works is both analog _and_ electro-mechanical.

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Re:How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans by gwbas1c on Friday July 26, 2024 @11:54PM (#41084331)
No, go look at the definition:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/analog

> of or relating to a mechanism, device, or technology that represents data by measurement of a continuous physical variable, as voltage or pressure.

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Re:How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans by moolcool on Sunday July 28, 2024 @10:54AM (#41093571)
"represents data by measurement of a continuous physical variable"

Did you read the article? The cigarette lighter represents data (pops out) based on measurement of a continuous variable (temperature)

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Re:How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans by gwbas1c on Wednesday July 31, 2024 @04:52PM (#41123331)
Yes. The latch is a bi-metallic strip that moves.

There is nothing representing the temperature. IE, to meet the definition of analog it would need something like a thermometer resistor where the resistance is used by some electronics to turn off the main heater.

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Re:How a car cigarette lighter works, in CT scans by moolcool on Tuesday August 13, 2024 @02:45PM (#41238299)
The pressure provided by the bi-metalic strip is representing the temperature, and it's turning off the main heater by causing the unit to pop out. The "signal" doesn't have to be voltage, it can be pressure or spacial position as well.
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